Part 18

In the emotive sphere the drug induced a great irritability. The dreams about a change of form occurred very generally to the three provers. The second prover had the same dreams on two successive nights.

After a careful comparison of the symptoms of the Solanum tuberosum ægrotans with those of the other known remedies of our Materia Medica, we have found them to agree with the symptoms of the following drugs which we enumerate in the order of their importance:

1. Bryonia; 2. Arsenicum; 3. Plumbum; 4. Nux-vomica; 5. Sepia; 6. Strontiana; 7. Viola-tricolor; 8. Squilla; 9. Pulsatilla; 10. Graphites; 11. Alumina; 12. Mercurius; 13. Natrum-mur; 14. Ignatia; 15. Calcarea.

We have no doubt that Bryonia and Arsenicum will prevent the rot; but, to be frank, we believe that, in this case at least, the isopathic method of treatment will prove more successful than the homœopathic. It is well known that the mode of preparing our drugs for medicinal purposes, modifies their action a good deal. This result is principally obtained by rubbing them down with sugar of milk, which is not an inert substance as Hahnemann believed, but is on the contrary endowed with the most useful powers of action. The sugar of milk effects a preliminary digestion of the drug, and, by imparting to it vital qualities, fits it for medicinal purposes. Do we not know that certain animal products are preferable to corresponding mineral substances? Is not the calcarea prepared from the oyster-shell preferable to the chemically prepared carbonates and phosphates of lime? Are not the poisons of serpents destined to occupy the first rank among the polychrests?

To return to our subject, the medicinal preparation obtained from the diseased potato is not the original poison as used by nature, but the poison modified in consequence of its having been previously engrafted on a living tubercle.

Our mode of inoculating either the isopathic or homœopathic preparation is as follows. Before putting the potato in the ground we perforate it with a big needle, and into this hole we insert a single globule of the third attenuation.

This operation is simple and easy. It can be applied on a large scale and we think that by its means the potato will be preserved for a long time yet to the European continent.

First prover: Van-Dyck, 26 years old, of a sanguine nervous temperament and a robust constitution.

First day.—1. Painful stitch in the right side, a few moments after taking the drug. Acidity and eructations, at 9 in the evening.

Second day.—On waking, weight above the eyes and in the forehead, as the morning after being intoxicated. Shuddering and sensation of cold internally, at noon. 5. Scanty and difficult stool, in the shape of small hard balls, in the evening.

Third day.—He dreams that he is to dress and draw the body of a drowned man; this body bounded up every moment and fell back either on his clothes or on his drawing board. The mucous membrane of the palate seems to detach itself here and there. Cross; he blames every thing, and cannot bear that any thing near him should be disturbed.

Fourth day.—Difficult stool in small red balls.

Fifth day.—10. Stool as above.

Sixth day.—Horrid colic, as if the bowels were violently twisted; 15 minutes after, hard and copious stool, followed by two almost liquid stools (at night).

Seventh day.—Copious and liquid diarrhœa, of a greenish yellow, in the morning. Prickling around the eyelids; on their internal surface they are red and congested. Tongue coated white. 15. White sordes on the teeth. (Profuse lachrymation). Little appetite. Pulse rather agitated.

Eighth day.—The median line of the abdomen from the sternum to the hypogastrium is painful to the touch. 20. Thirst. Little appetite. Sensation of warmth about the head, at 4 in the evening.

Ninth day.—Dreams about magic, men being transformed into speaking animals, changes at night, &c. Heat in the canal of the urethra, after urinating. 25. The urine deposits a yellowish sediment. Small pimples on the back, causing a violent itching. Sneezing in going up-stairs.

Tenth day.—Heaviness on the eyes. Slight beating in the temples. 30. Mounting of heat to the head from time to time.

Eleventh day.—Pricking around the eyelids, on waking. Itching of the back. Sweat on doing the least work. Heaviness of the head.

Twelfth day.—35. Heaviness in the head which is at times very violent, especially when raising the head again after stooping. Smarting and prickling in the eyes. No stool for five days past.

Thirteenth day.—Heaviness of the head, worse in the morning than evening. Ordinary stool. 40. Difficult digestion. Sneezing after going up-stairs. Likes to loiter about.

Fourteenth day.—Heaviness of the head. Ordinary stool. 45. He would like to go to bed, but is too lazy, at 10 in the evening. Pains in the thighs, above the knee-pan.

Fifteenth day.—(Lachrymation on waking). Slight heaviness of the head. Greenish yellow coating on the tongue, along the middle. 50. White slime on the teeth. Headache at noon. Lancinations in the region of the heart. Chilliness with chattering of the teeth. Smarting at the eyes, in the evening. 55. Not much appetite. Sneezing. Lips cracked, bleeding and almost raw.

Sixteenth day.—Smarting at the eyelids. Tongue slightly coated white. 60. White mucus on the teeth. Dreams about his daily business. Flatulence and eructations. Agitated pulse. Sneezing at 4 in the afternoon. 65. Smarting and prickling at the eyes.

Seventeenth day.—Colic followed by two stools at 4 in the morning. The right umbilical region is painful to contact.

Eighteenth day.—Colic. Not much appetite. 70. Sneezing at 5 in the evening.

Nineteenth day.—Prickling in the throat, inducing cough. Dry cough.

Twenty-third day.—Heaviness of the head on waking.